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Marketing headlines of the week
Sublime, beehiiv, Macaw
Hey there!
Welcome back to H1 Gallery — a collection of the best marketing headlines on the internet.
Sorry for the delay on this send… today is my birthday and I decided to take myself out for lunch (and had 5 calls because I forgot to block my calendar). That’s a worthy excuse, right?
Let’s dive in!
— Ryan (@rjgilbert)
P.S. In case you somehow found this newsletter from somewhere/someone other than me… I also publish another newsletter called Workspaces that I think you might also enjoy.
Save anything that makes you go “whoa”
Sublime's marketing headline "Save anything that makes you go 'whoa'" is a unique and thought provoking headline.
The headline taps into the common experience of stumbling across something amazing online and wanting to preserve it. This relatability helps users immediately understand the tool's purpose and value.
The informal, conversational tone makes the product feel approachable and user-friendly. It suggests that Sublime is designed for natural, intuitive use rather than requiring complex workflows.
The use of "whoa" is what grabbed my attention. It's a casual and universal expression of amazement that everyone understands. This helps make the headline feel conversational and authentic rather than corporate or overly technical.
This part of the headline also focuses on the moment of discovery. This emphasizes the emotional aspect of content curation rather than the technical aspects of saving or organizing content - which is often annoying and tiresome.
"Save anything" implies flexibility and breadth of functionality. It suggests that Sublime can handle whatever type of content the user finds interesting, without limiting it to specific formats or sources - helping keep the tool inclusive for all use cases.
Overall, this headline is effective because it positions the tool as a natural extension of how people already react to interesting content online, making it feel like an intuitive addition to their digital life rather than another complicated tool to learn.
In Sublime's words:
We went through a lot of options for the tagline:
v1 - Sublime is an intelligent library for the information you care about
v2 - Sublime is the perfect tool to help you collect and make the most of your digital knowledge.
V3 - Sublime is a (digital) place for all the things you care about.
V4 - Save anything that matters to you.
Building off of that last one, I added a comment in Figma of “brain go whoa?” and a couple days later suggested “Save anything that makes you go “whoa.”
That tagline felt so good to me because it connected on an emotional level with the user and the experience they’ve likely had of seeing something and, well, going “whoa.”
It’s a universal thing that often gets watered down in website copy into something more SaaS-y, all of which made “Save anything that makes you go ‘whoa’” stand out that much more.
There’s a casual vibe to the phrase too that I think draws people in and makes them feel like, “oh, this is a tool that feels human” which is important given how soulless a lot of knowledge tools in the space feel these days.
I do remember us debating the right spelling of the word - is it ‘whoa’ or ‘woah’? “Whoa” proved victorious but there’s really no wrong way to spell ‘whoa.’ We loved the concept of ‘whoa’ so much, we named this year’s zine “Whoa, Vol. 1: Conversations to make you feel human.”
Own your audience. Own your future.
beehiiv's headline "Own your audience. Own your future." is a powerful and assertive message.
The repetition of "Own" in both parts of the headline helps create a strong parallel structure that makes the headline more memorable and impactful.
And diving deeper into using "Own" rather than "Build" or "Grow," the headline taps into a deeper desire for control and independence. It suggests that beehiiv isn't just about having an audience but truly owning the relationship with them - something that does not actually exist on the various social media platforms out there today.
Those audiences are rented where beehiiv's are owned. Huge difference.
The progression from "audience" to "future" is clever. It creates a sort of cause-and-effect relationship, implying that owning your audience is the key to controlling your future success. This speaks to creators' desires for long-term success.
This also has broader implications beyond just newsletter success. It taps into aspirational desires for independence, control, and entrepreneurial success - making the message resonate on both a practical and emotional level.
Overall, this headline is effective because it speaks to both immediate needs (audience ownership) and long-term aspirations (future success). It positions beehiiv not just as a newsletter platform but as a tool for achieving creative independence. The declarative nature of the statements gives the headline confidence and authority while also being memorable.
10/10 headline. Would like to own my audience (and future).
Generate AI content that humans love to read
Macaw's marketing headline "Generate AI content that humans love to read" is a headline that plays on the current and growing AI trend. Here's why it works:
Starting the headline with "Generate" immediately positions Macaw as a creation tool. This action verb sets up clear expectations about what the product does… helps you generate or create.
The phrase "humans love to read" is where this headline truly shines. It implies that while the content is AI-generated (which many products now do), it maintains that coveted human touch. This directly addresses a common concern about AI content feeling robotic or impersonal.
This is a key differentiator in the crowded AI content space. Instead of just promising bland AI content, it promises content that resonates with human readers - suggesting quality and engagement rather than just quantity or efficiency.
Honestly… just the inclusion of "humans" in this specific headline creates an interesting juxtaposition with "AI content." This contrast acknowledges the technological nature of the tool while emphasizing the human-centric outcome.
This is quite the lofty promise. But that's why this headline works. It makes you stop and question if this is truly possible.
In Macaw's words:
For me, a good headline has context and makes a big claim. It should be as clear as possible what you're offering. I always remember this quote "Sometimes the best way to sell a horse, is to say 'horse for sale'". I don't like. The goal of a headline is to pique the interest of your visitor to get them to scroll (or convert immediately).
Process for the current headline was honestly pretty straight forward, I knew we wanted to position ourself as human-quality and I wanted it to be clear what we offered. So it just clicked.
I don't think there was many iterations, maybe a few slight adjustments for readability.
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See you back here next week (hopefully a bit earlier)!
— Ryan (@rjgilbert)